Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to configuration of nodes in networks. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for automatically detecting roles of nodes in layered network topologies for use in configuring the nodes.
Related Art
Switch fabrics are commonly used to route traffic within data centers. For example, network traffic may be transmitted to, from, or between servers in a data center using an access layer of “leaf” switches connected to a fabric of “spine” and/or “super-spine” switches. Traffic from a first server to a second server may be received at a first access switch to which the first server is connected, routed or switched through the fabric to a second access switch, and forwarded from the second access switch to the second server.
Within a switch fabric, switches are commonly configured for certain roles based on the locations of the switches in the fabric's topology. For example, access switches in a switch fabric may be configured with a different set of filters, QoS parameters, protocols, hardware configurations, interface configurations, and/or security attributes than core switches in the switch fabric. Moreover, configuration of network devices in switch fabrics typically incurs the overhead of manually identifying the role of each network device based on the location of the network device in the topology, followed by the transmission of a configuration policy to the network device based on the role of the network device. Consequently, management of switch fabrics may be improved by streamlining the role-based configuration of network devices in the switch fabrics.
In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same figure elements.